This is how I imagine the shop to look from the outside (of course, with a different name).

Present day, Boston

"Dylan, I need you behind the counter, Mel is losing it!" I yelled from the storeroom where I was gathering ingredients for afternoon sweets and sandwiches. It was another busy day, and I was just barely managing. We were getting more and more customers each day, and I was starting to consider getting a part-timer. We would end up collapsing out of exhaustion if I didn't get help in the near future.

"Got it!" he responded, and all that was heard after that was loud stomping and a thud of closing doors. I smiled a little and started to walk back towards the kitchen.

It had been more than 5 years since that incident, and I couldn't be more satisfied with my life. After finishing my degree in business, I left Chicago and started to work as a part-timer in a small bakery called Puffy Joe. I had no idea why it was called this way, and when I once asked, I was almost killed by the owner, Krista, so I stopped. The only thing I knew was that it had something to do with her ex. And with my experiences with exes, that kind of information was enough to shut me up.

I kept on working there for a year and a half, learning how to do different kinds of sweets and cakes, attending Baking courses and Ordinary cooking courses at the same time. Then, I got an unbelievable offer I could not refuse. One of Krista's friends was moving out of the city and needed to sell his shop in the Centre of Boston. What more, it was on Oliver Street, which seemed almost like destiny. So I bought it. I took a loan, asked my friends from the cooking courses for help, and in half a year, we were able to open the shop.

It was hard work. The shop was originally a snack shop with all kinds of foods, so it wasn't really equipped to be a coffee shop, but we managed. And I couldn't be more proud of what we achieved.

I got myself Ollie's Café on Oliver Street. It was hilarious. Some of my close friends and family members tried to change my mind about the name, but I stood my ground. It seemed just right.

I still remembered the reactions of my customers when they first saw the name. Some were amused, some thought it was genius and, of course, few thought it was stupid and cliché. But I couldn't care less about those people. My shop became one of the most visited cafés in this part of the city in no time, so the name had a good effect.

I might have been a bit arrogant here, but with the success we got in a matter of a few months, I dared to say the café was one of the most popular ones in the center. We were even interviewed and featured in a morning show pursuing the best places to have breakfast on a busy morning. And to show off a bit more, there was even some kind of survey about the quality of Boston's Cafés, and ours came out as the third winning choice.

I couldn't help the tears when I first heard the news. All my hard work, all the hours spent trying new sweets and special coffees. All the nights we stayed awake to make the shop look presentable. All the hardships we had to overcome to end up here. Everything was worth it!

"Oli, we need the cakes and sandwiches as soon as possible. People are starting to ask for the lunch menu." Melanie, one of my employees, slipped inside the kitchen, looking around. When she noticed there was some finished food, she took the plates with chicken and avocado sandwiches and stared at me with undisguised urgency.

I had to laugh at that.

"Some of the cakes are in the refrigerator, so you can take them whenever you want to. The rest of the sandwiches will be finished in ten minutes." I smiled and grabbed tomatoes, turkey and parmesan, so I could finish the turkey ones. Once that was done, I finished the remaining tofu sandwiches, veggie sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, and bacon sandwiches and arranged them on the plates to make them look even more appetizing. We ate with our eyes too, after all.

I took all of the plates and made my way to the main room of our little kingdom, smiling brightly.

It was crowded! All of the seats were taken, and some people were even standing around, chatting with each other, their coffees in hands. At times like this, I was thanking God the place wasn't too big. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to handle it at all. I had only five employees excluding me, so there were six of us in total. And although all of us were able to work in the kitchen, Melanie and Lindsey stayed in the front, making coffee and working behind the cashier most of the time. The rest of us: me, Dylan, Finley, and Charlie worked as pairs in the kitchen, where one of us usually switched to the front when it got busier.

The kitchen staff started at 5 a.m. because we needed to prepare fresh sweets in the morning. Thanks to that, the waiting staff for the day had to prepare the shop alone, so the girls usually came at 6:30 in the morning even though we opened two hours later.

It was hard work, but all of us enjoyed it, and we were doing it with pleasure. The fact we were good friends helped a lot.

"Sandwiches are done!" I cheered and put them inside the refrigerator.

There were three refrigerators in our shop; one for sweet things, one for sandwiches and one for drinks. There was one more, a lot smaller, for cream, milk and other necessary things for different types of coffees. Then we had one extra counter meant for other sweet things which didn't need to be refrigerated, like cookies, muffins and other baked goods.

With forty-five seats in total, there wasn't space for too many people, but it looked like there were hundreds because the room was on the smaller side of the spectrum.

We had ordinary couches with tables, and barstools by the windows and behind the counter. The seats by the windows were especially popular because you could watch the street and people walking there while enjoying your time, and many people were willing to wait until a seat got free so they could sit there too.

Other than that, there was a little family corner in front of the shop as well, and it became very popular right from the beginning. Whenever a family with kids came by, they went there almost automatically and used that opportunity to get to know other families with children. Some even became great friends.

Looking around, I noticed Dylan and walked towards him.

"How's it going? Need any help? I'm done for a while." I smiled at him. He was just making our special Ollie's Coffee. It was basically a caramel macchiato but with few extra ingredients which weren't normally added to it. It was mostly some spices and a fruit syrup that gave the coffee a bit of an exotic taste. It was the most popular Coffee we had so far.

"Everything's fine, we are managing, Ollie. But if you are really that bored, you can prepare one Coffee Bliss. H wants one together with Hot White Chocolate." He motioned towards already prepared beverage, and I nodded, preparing the plate for the dessert.

I looked over at H, checking the customer who ordered this to know whether it was a regular or not. Seeing it was a new customer, I reached for sour cream, knowing it went well with the dessert and continued preparing it.

Whenever a regular came, I liked to add a little bit of a treat on the side for them. Sometimes it was a cookie, sometimes a cupcake. It gave them a feeling of being welcomed and remembered, which was what we wanted. We needed the customers to keep coming back. One could call it a bribe, I guess.

The majority of the seats and tables in the shop had a specific marking. Tables were numbered from 1 to 7 and the bar seats by the windows were marked alphabetically from A to L. The only seats that didn't have any marks were the seats behind the bar counter. There were only 7 seats, and the staff was right behind the counter, so it wasn't hard to remember who ordered what.

"Got it." I finished serving the cake on the plate and waving for Mel to come and pick it up.

"Finally done?" asked Mel, taking the plate and the chocolate and putting it on the tray.

"Yes, for now. If either of you wants to, you can take a break. I can stand in for you." I smiled at both of them, but their faces showed concern and disapproval.

"You are the one who needs the break, Oliver. Just go sit down and take a breather. You overwork yourself too much," said Dylan and Mel just nodded angrily and left to deliver the order. I shook my head but still went to take one of today's muffins and prepared myself a cup of espresso.

"Ok, but I'm not the only one who works too much. You two need a break too," grumbling, I poured myself a glass of orange juice too, put everything on a plate and went for the door to the kitchen.

"Don't pout, Ollie. We are just worried. You have to admit that you work more than us. Sometimes you go to work even on your break days, you have a boyfriend to entertain, and I'm not even mentioning Matthias. God knows you should take one long break to relax."

Just before I disappeared into the kitchen, I laughed a little and shook my head again. I was a bad boss if I made my employees worried about me. I had to set it right.

"You got it wrong, Dylan. Joshua and Matty are my relaxations, so I don't really need the break as much as all of you think," I mumbled, smiling like an idiot, thinking about those two and the movie night we planned for today.

I couldn't wait.

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This is how I imagine the shop looks like from the inside!